Exclusion through acculturation? Comparing first- and second-generation European Muslims’ perceptions of discrimination across four national contexts

ABSTRACT

Negative attitudes towards Muslims have increased substantially in Europe, but European Muslims’ perceptions of discrimination vary across national contexts. Three separate approaches explain perceptions of discrimination: social psychological theories at the micro-level, migration theories at the social structural level, and citizenship theories at the macro-level. We know less about how these approaches fit together to explain variation in perceptions of discrimination across national contexts. To evaluate this question, this article combines survey data of European Muslims (n?=?1,618) with indices of policy commitments to immigrant integration in four countries. Contrary to hypothesized findings, this article identifies a striking puzzle: (1) Muslims report more experiences of discrimination in more inclusive contexts and (2) native-born Muslims are more likely to perceive societal hostility than Muslim immigrants in more inclusive contexts. To make sense of this puzzle, I offer an integrated approach that explains how macro-level contexts condition individual-level perceptions of exclusion through cultural knowledge.     

Acts and practices of citizenship: Muslim women’s activism in the UK

Drawing on the growing literature on Muslim women’s activism, this paper explores grammars of action that frame political mobilizations of Muslim women in the UK. By taking a broad view of political activism, we identify acts and practices of citizenship through which Muslim women activists engage with, reinterpret and challenge social norms. The article critically engages with dominant readings of post-migration minorities’ political mobilization through the lens of citizenship regimes and draws attention to more processual and agency-centred perspectives on citizenship. We focus on two salient themes that Bristol-based Muslim activists were concerned with: mobilizing against violence against women, manifested in the anti-FGM campaign by Integrate Bristol, and attempts to re-negotiate the terms of participation in religious spaces, manifested in claims for more inclusive mosques. In both instances, mobilization was not confined to the local community or national level, but supported by and embedded in related transnational struggles.     

Follow the money: international donors,external homelands and their effect on Romani media and advocacy

ABSTRACT

While Roma are both Europe’s largest minority, there is no “homeland” state that claims to guard their interest. The lack of “an external national homeland” [Brubaker, R. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] to watchdog and safeguard their rights has a particular effect on how Roma engage as political actors and subjects. International donors/foundations have assumed the role of “external homeland”. This article explores the effect that donors’ funding priorities have on Romani advocacy – specifically Romani journalism. Drawing upon multi-sited fieldwork in five countries, extensive document analysis, and interviews, Idemonstrate that the change in Romani media content over the past two decades reflects the shift in funders’ priorities, particularly in relation to the European project. “The Roma” become a tool for donors and European institutions to build a “European” identity while Romani-led advocacy becomes increasingly marganilized.     

Veiled Nannies and Secular Futures in France

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on recent French efforts to expand legal regulation of religious symbols to childcare. Controversies over ‘veiled nannies’ serve as points of departure for investigating laïcité – French secularism – through which religion is regulated. The investigation is based on fieldwork among Muslim women in Marseille and on the analysis of legal decisions, official documents, and media. The debates on whether to legislate on religious symbols in the domain of childcare reveal how the line between religion and politics, and private and public is continuously redrawn through state efforts to cultivate and govern (secular) Republican selves. Drawing on Agrama’s [2012a. Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty and the Rule of Law in Egypt. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] conceptualisation of secularism as a ‘problem-space’, I argue that legal regulation of religious symbols institutionalises a ‘secular suspicion’ at the heart of efforts to imagine and govern French society and its future, a future in which Muslims increasingly find it difficult to imagine themselves.     

Mapping migrants' inclusion: an analytical framework for examining policy output

Comparative studies on the extension of rights, including naturalization rights, to migrants have grown exponentially. We propose a theoretically informed analytical framework to examine state policies relating to the extension of rights to aliens and citizenship acquisition. It consists of three frames: the rights frame, the citizenship eligibility frame and the earned citizenship frame. The framework enables the examination and mapping of policy developments in this broad field, while also elucidating how the notions of membership, status and identity – key constructs associated with the nation state – are articulated in states’ policy attempts to ‘integrate’ migrants, and, importantly, how they are reformulated over time. In the process, the framework nuances ideas about the coherence and stability of national citizenship regimes, brings greater conceptual clarity to the field, and delimits and delineates the citizenship construct. It also provides scope for additional and new comparative insights within and across states.     

What factors account for black–white differences in anti-Muslim sentiment in the contemporary USA?

I use data from the 2004 General Social Survey (N=719) and multivariate analyses to: explore the effects of race on attitudes toward Muslims; evaluate the extent to which the racial differences were mediated by psychological and religious factors; and assess whether the race effects differed significantly by gender. The findings show that blacks report significantly more favourable feelings toward Muslims than whites. Those respondents who are female, more educated and Catholic also hold significantly higher scores on the 100-point scale assessing feelings toward Muslims. After controlling for religious and psychological factors, I find that the racial difference in feelings toward Muslims is increased, indicating that the race effect is suppressed by these factors. Moderation analysis reveals that white men hold the highest level of negative feelings toward Muslims, compared to women and black men. The findings suggest challenging the misconstrued perceptions of Muslims through education and endorsement of positive images.     

Gender and nation

The article outlines some of the main dimensions in which gender relations are crucial in understanding and analysing the phenomena of nations and nationalism, and the specific boundaries of inclusions and exclusions that they construct. Three major dimensions of nationalist projects that relate to citizenship, culture and origin are differentiated. In each of them gender relations play specific roles and have mobilized specific struggles. The article looks at the dualistic nature of women's citizenship, as both included and excluded from the general body of citizens. Even when there is a formal equality of women in their political rights as citizens, other modes of exclusion in the political, social and civil spheres continue to operate. The particular ways in which the entry of women into the military has been linked to struggles for women's equality as citizens are examined in this context. In relation to national cultures, both secular and religious, the article examines the ways in which women play the roles of cultural transmitters as well as cultural signifiers of the national collectivity. The last part of the article examines the role of women as biological reproducers of ‘the nation’ and how a variety of means are taken in order to ensure that the biological reproduction will fall within the legitimate boundaries of the collectivity.     

The rhetoric of Islamophobia: an analysis of the means of persuasion in Hege Storhaug’s writings on Islam and Muslims

Few actors have had a greater impact on the “framing of Muslims” as a social and political “problem” in Norway since 2001 than Hege Storhaug of the government- and corporate billionaire funded civil society organization Human Rights Service (HRS). Using the methodological tools of the “rhetorical branch” of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and applying the Aristotelian concepts of ethos, logos and pathos, we analyze the bestselling popular title on Islam and Muslims ever published in Norway, namely Storhaug’s self-published 2015 title “Islam – The Eleventh Plague”. We argue that Storhaug’s popular success must be understood in light of her rhetorical appeals to femonationalism, the critique of religion and “Enlightenment” values. We show how she in her writings incites fear of the Muslim “Other” through specific rhetorical devices and a positioning of herself as a defender of the “nation” and the “people” – against national and international “elites”.     

Muslim immigrants and religious group feelings: self-identification and attitudes among Sunni and Alevi Turkish-Dutch

Affective ratings of multiple religious (sub)groups (Muslims, Christians, Jews and non-believers, as well as Sunni, Alevi and Sjiit Muslims), the endorsement of Islamic minority rights and religious group identification were examined among Sunni and Alevi Turkish-Dutch participants. The findings show that both groups differ in important ways. Some Alevi participants considered themselves Muslims but others interpreted Alevi identity in a secular way. The Sunnis were quite negative towards Jews and non-believers, they more strongly endorsed Islamic minority rights and they had very high Muslim group identification. Furthermore, the Sunnis were negative towards Alevis and the Alevis were negative towards the Sunnis. Muslim group identification was positively and strongly related to feelings towards Muslims and to the endorsement of Islamic group rights.     

Perceived religious discrimination and confidence in Canadian institutions

ABSTRACT

Using a recent cycle of the Canadian General Social Survey (N?=?27,534), this paper first examines the extent of perceived religious discrimination among religious minorities of Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist. The results show that Muslims and Jews are statistically significantly and largely more likely to report that they have experienced religious discrimination than other religious minorities. Subsequently, the impact of religious discrimination on the self-reported confidence in a number of Canadian institutions is assessed. Religious discrimination is found to negatively influence the confidence of discriminated Muslims in the institutions, but it appears without such impact for discriminated Jews. Various implications are discussed.     

‘Keeping silent’: the problem of citizenship for Lilian Thuram

Abstract

Drawing upon translations of the football player Lilian Thuram's critiques of French racism and immigration, as well as other English language sources on the condition of banlieue life in France, this essay explores the relationship between citizenship and representation. Rather than merely reading Thuram as an athlete, I situate him as a political figure. The essay reads Thuram philosophically: as a figure who is familiar with and thinks the French and European political through its philosophical history. It is argued that Thuram's critiques are inexplicable unless they are understood as a redress to the very philosophical core of European modernity. Instead of presuming an inevitable relationship between citizenship and representation, this essay seeks to understand how representation works in relation to questions of citizenship and the limits of citizenship in contemporary Europe for those who are defined as Berber, black or Arab.     

Contesting the limits of political participation: Latinos and black African migrant workers in Israel

The article addresses the significance of migrant associations and of their participatory practices as a vehicle by which migrant workers become political actors and negotiate membership in Israel. We offer a comparative analysis of black African and Latin American undocumented migrant communities to suggest the very fact that they manage to organize in autonomous associations in order to protect their interests, have the ability to mobilize support over issues of concern and raise claims before political authorities unwilling to accord them recognition, attest to the process whereby migrants become political actors and open new platforms of deliberation that enlarge de facto the limits of the Israeli public sphere. Moreover, by articulating their claims in terms of universalized themes such as "human suffering" and "human rights" migrants attempt at participating in the host society in the name of a generic category of "personhood", one that transcends state-embedded conceptions of citizenship.     

Religious visibility: perceptions and experiences of residents in two Muslim concentration suburbs in Melbourne,Australia

In recent decades, and especially after the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on US, an antipathy towards and fear of Muslim minorities in Western countries have increased, forming part of the current widespread anti-immigration sentiment. In this context, the ‘religiously visible’ Muslims are the most obvious target of negative perceptions, discrimination and other manifestations of ‘Islamophobia’. This paper uses quantitative and qualitative data on religious visibility collected through a survey and in-depth interviews in two suburbs with residential concentrations of Muslims in Melbourne, Australia. The two localities, ‘Broadburb’ and ‘Greenburb’, have similar proportions of Muslim residents (about 1/3) but the levels of religious visibility differ. The paper discusses perceptions and experiences of being religiously visible in a secular society, and particularly being a ‘visible Muslim’. We also discuss perceptions of Muslim visibility by others – non-visible Muslims and non-Muslims – who share neighbourhoods with the visible Muslim minority.     

The geo‐classifications of colonial statelessness: The anthropology of Kastom,land and citizenship in the decolonisation of Vanuatu

Anthropological accounts of Vanuatu's independence have emphasised both the materiality of land alienation and the importance of kastom (custom) as a symbol of cultural practice, political resistance and national unity in accounts of decolonisation and postcolonial nation‐making. For 74 years indigenous ni‐Vanuatu were stateless and lacked all forms of citizenship and nationality in the Anglo‐French Condominium of the New Hebrides (1906–1980). This article situates anthropological accounts of land, kastom and the state in Vanuatu's transition to independence in relation to statelessness, citizenship and hierarchies of ethnographic authenticity within the geo‐classificatory frameworks of colonial rule established by the condominium. The embodiment of citizenship and demands to end the cumulative humiliations of statelessness that ni‐Vanuatu experienced in the condominium illuminate both tensions and continuities in idealist and materialist accounts of Melanesian nationalisms evident in kastom and land as they were mediated by the emancipatory claims and promises of postcolonial citizenship.     

Non‐therapeutic male genital cutting and harm: Law,policy and evidence from U.K. hospitals

Female genital cutting (FGC) is generally understood as a gendered harm, abusive cultural practice and human rights violation. By contrast, male genital cutting (MGC) is held to be minimally invasive, an expression of religious identity and a legitimate parental choice. Yet scholars increasingly problematize this dichotomy, arguing that male and female genital cutting can occasion comparable levels of harm. In 2015 this academic critique received judicial endorsement, with Sir James Munby's acknowledgement that all genital cutting can cause ‘significant harm’. This article investigates the harm occasioned by MGC. It is informed by a Freedom of Information (FoI) study which provides some empirical evidence of the nature and frequency of physical harm caused by MGC in U.K. hospitals. While acknowledging the challenges and limitations of FoI research, we outline important lessons that this preliminary study contains for medical ethics, law and policy. It provides some empirical evidence to support claims regarding the risks which accompany the procedure and the obligation of health professionals to disclose them, and reveals the paucity of measures in place to ensure that harms are recorded, disclosed and monitored.     

Property as sovereignty in micro: the state/property nexus and the Cyprus Problem

This article shows that landed property can be an exercise of state sovereignty in micro. I argue that property tightly relates to statehood and that the concept of ‘community’ offers us a lens with which to investigate that relation. Property's ‘communal’ character in Cyprus often transcends individual rights to ownership. A house belongs not to an individual, but to persons in their capacity as members of either the Greek-Cypriot or Turkish-Cypriot constitutional communities of the Republic. Focusing on the moral and political claims that ensue from this premise, I show how refugee Cypriots encounter and rearticulate the state in a variety of institutions as they lay claims to property (periousia) – their own or others’. Consequently, I argue that thinking through ‘community’ contributes to understandings of the linkage between property and statecraft (what I call the state/property nexus). In turn, this allows us to better comprehend statehood in post-conflict domains.     

Dispossession in the Age of Humanity: Human Rights,Citizenship, and Indigeneity in the Central Kalahari

Over the past 50 years, the Central Kalahari region of Botswana became a site of struggles over land and resources rights, identity, citizenship, and indigeneity. The policies of the government of Botswana towards the San express the dominant Tswana perspectives on humanity and what is considered human. Since independence in 1966 the goals of the government of Botswana have been to sedentarise the San and to transform them into ‘modern’ citizens who live in villages, keep livestock, and engage in agriculture and business. In this paper I analyse the case of the people of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and their battles over rights and recognition as citizens of Botswana and as human beings. I examine how the government's decisions to deny Central Kalahari residents their distinct rights to natural resources such as wildlife—in spite of High Court decisions in the San's favour—as well as rights to services and development shared by other citizens—are linked to the dominant Tswana understanding of humanity.     

Accepting immigrants as fellow citizens: citizenship representations in relation to migration policy preferences

Citizenship representations within national populations have mainly been deduced from state policies on migration. Yet, at the individual level, no studies have investigated whether citizenship representations are reliably associated with preferences for specific migration policies (i.e. the underlying assumption for deducing citizenship representations from state policies). Because several studies have shown that state policies may not reflect understandings of citizenship within national populations, it may be more relevant to study citizenship representations at the individual level, in relation to personal preferences regarding migration policies. This study examined how ethnic, cultural and civic citizenship representations relate to migration policy preferences at the individual level among majority group high-school students (N = 1,734) in seven EU countries. Findings add to the understanding of citizenship representations and may have implications for the implementation of migration policies.